Jeff Steele, Writer/Photographer

February 13 thru 16, 2026 are the days to participate in a global birding event known as The Great Backyad Bird Count.

What is the Great Backyard Bird Count?

Each year bird enthusiasts from all over the world take part in a citizen science endeavor to identify, count and submit sightings of as many of our avian friends that can be found.

Why participate?

This four day event greatly helps Ornithologists and Scientists to gather much needed data on birds.  Things like range distribution, migration patterns, new species, increase/decrease in population and more are all critical information gathered during The Great Bird Count.

That data is used to understand and take action not only in bird populations, but the health of our planet overall.  Global climate change, decline in pollination, forest distributions, and every living thing on our Earth is affected, and the Great Backyard Bird Count helps to guage those changes.

So how much does it cost?

It’s free and also a great excuse to get outdoors to do some serious birding.  Straight from your smartphone or going on-line to the Cornell apps such as Merlin and e-Bird. These two tools will help you locate and keep count of  your findings.  There’s even a free course offered on how to use e-Bird.  Once you’ve entered the data in e-Bird it becomes part of the Great Backyard Bird Count. That’s the only requirement for successful participation. Here are a couple of sites to learn more.

Merlin Bird ID – Home

https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48000957940#1.-Download-eBird-Mobile

In summary.

There’s a real sense of worth when participating in The Great Backyard Bird Count.  A sense of worth knowing you are contributing to a good cause and our future. Additionally, You’ll have the pleasure of doing a healthy outdoor activity, birding.  You may even meet and make new friends who also enjoy/participate in birding. Plus you’ll  get to hone your bird ID skills while enjoying the sight of various species.

Grab your binoculars, open the apps, then start finding and logging birds.  See you in the field.